When I was in college, some twenty years ago, I went to an institute primarily focused on engineering (Georgia Tech). So it wasn’t surprising to hear guys constantly talk about “the ratio.” That would be the ratio of guys to girls, and it was always in the neighborhood of 4:1—not a happy statistic for a […]
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What’s the best setting for shop air pressure?
The following is a letter received by the Compressed Air Challenge from a concerned individual. Queries such as these are common if someone attends a CAC seminar. Question: We have a new maintenance supervisor that has turned down our shop air pressure to 86 psi, supposedly saving operating cost. My opinion is it should be […]
Finding and fixing compressed air leaks
Imagine your plant as a big ship travelling toward a destination. Waves splash across the bow, rain falls in, and the corroding salt water eats holes in the hull. Leaks start, a trickle at first and then a torrent. What do you do? Some options: • Turn on more pumps • Buy a really big […]
Manufacturing matters: International update
Here’s a look at regional manufacturing reports from the past couple of weeks. Singapore’s Gross domestic product shrank an annualized 1.4%in the three months through March 31 from the previous quarter, when it rose 3.3%, the Trade Ministry said today. Bloomberg reports that the city-state stuck to a policy of allowing gradual gains in its […]
NFPA data shows slight decrease in pneumatic shipments
The National Fluid Power Association’s 12-month graph of moving averages shows that pneumatic shipments, as well as hydraulic shipments, decreased slightly in February 2013. The latest data published by the NFPA shows that industry shipments of fluid power products for February 2013 decreased 11.8% compared to February 2012, and it also decreased 3.5% c ompared to […]
Manufacturing matters – Leading in clean energy
David Danielson, Assistant Secretary for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, announced a Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative at the ribbon cutting of a new facility, the Carbon Fiber Technology Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenn. Danielson said this represents the type of public-private partnership necessary for the U.S. to lead in clean […]
Looking forward to IFK 2014
One of the best fluid power technical conferences in the world is the every-four-year IFK event held in the lovely city of Aachen, Germany. I’ve had the good fortune to attend the conference twice in the past, and I know that next year’s 9th IFK will be an important fluid power event for both manufacturers […]
How efficient are your air compressors?
Just what is your facility’s leakage level? How efficient are your air compressors? These are questions you can answer for yourself with some quick and inexpensive tests involving a calculator and a stopwatch. The answers you find could surprise you. For compressors that use load/unload controls, there is an easy way to roughly estimate the […]
5 reasons you need to attend the NFPA Annual Conference
We’re only 8 days out from the National Conference of the National Fluid Power Association, the organization’s premier annual event. If you don’t yet have your flight to Phoenix booked, I suggest you get on it as soon as possible! This year’s conference has the theme “Succeeding in an Increasingly Competitive Environment” and the lineup of […]
Looking down the road at manufacturing
We have a problem with manufacturing in this country. We haven’t seen real leadership from Washington for years on either side of the aisle, and the numbers that lie ahead are pretty daunting. And that’s not just from the perspective of losing jobs. The Manufacturing Institute says that of the companies they survey, on median, […]